Chapter 14

Chapter

Fourteen

ORION

I came to with a gasp. I was profoundly aware that I was alone, not a single other heartbeat in the house. It took me almost a full minute, though, to remember why that was a problem.

"Zane." The word came out on a sharp breath, and I jumped to my feet, hurrying to the front door, which sat wide open. Panic threatened to engulf me, but I reminded myself that we were in the Canadian wilderness, and if it had been the humans who had taken him, they wouldn't have left me to my slumber.

I scanned the immediate area, but even with my vision, I couldn't see through the dark trees. It was well past midnight, creeping toward dawn, and the entire forest was deadly silent. Closing my eyes, I tried to home in on him, and just when I thought he was long gone, I heard it.

The faint beat of a heart matching the ebb and flow of a small creek. I breathed deep on the next wafting breeze and caught his scent, and not thinking twice about it, I hurried out of my clothes and shifted.

It was easier to cover ground that way, and easier to track him by scent. He wasn't far, and I was startled by the running water so close to the little cabin. It was fresh and inviting, and it was no surprise at all that Zane had been tempted away from the house by it.

I was also beyond relieved that he hadn't tried to go farther. He was naked again, crouched by the edge, and though my vision wasn't as detailed when I was a Wolf, I could see a small pile of still-wriggling fish beside him. If I'd had a voice to do it, I might have laughed, but I still managed a quiet whuff as I approached.

Zane turned, his teeth bared, but he seemed to recognize me after a second. His body relaxed, and he met my gaze for a long moment before he dove back into the water. His half-shifted state was more awkward than he would have been hunting as his wolf, but he emerged soaking wet with another fish in his jaws.

He spit it out on the pile, then he perched on the rock as I approached on his other side. Part of me wanted to shift back so I could speak to him, but when his hand settled in my fur, I leaned against him and shared my warmth. He pet me, ruffling my neck with his claws grazing my skin, and I basked in it.

It wasn't just the Omega in me that wanted him— all of me was half-desperate for more. There would be no coming back from this, and I knew if Zane remembered it when this was all over, it was likely he'd never look at me the same way again.

Whatever fragile thing had been between us before would be shattered forever.

But I couldn't stop myself.

As the sky began to lighten, I eventually gave in and let my body twist back into the shape of a man. My bones ached, but it felt good letting go like that. I half-wondered if my eyes were still flaring orange, but Zane didn't have speech to tell me.

I shifted to sit on the rock next to him, and I dragged the pads of my finger up his bare arm. "I was hoping I'd wake you to find you more yourself."

He chuffed and turned his head to nose at me.

"I was also hoping to find me a bit more like myself," I added. My backside was sticky with dried slick, but I was still warm there. Painfully warm. In fact, it was spreading to my lower belly, and I wondered if maybe the withdrawals were finally setting in.

When I sucked in a breath, Zane whined and leaned back, staring at me with worry in his eyes.

"This is your brother's fault," I said, trying not to snap. Another cramp rippled through me, and I doubled over so far, my forehead nearly touched my knees. "He didn't tell me how to come off this shit."

Before I was aware of it, Zane was on his feet, and suddenly I was being lifted into the air. I gave a shout of protest, but Zane didn't stop. He hoisted me up on his shoulder and began to stomp toward the house.

"Let me down, you fucking asshole!" I cried, clawing at his back.

He ignored the bleeding gashes like they were nothing, and I could only imagine what a picture we made. I was shorter than him, but I was all muscle and bulk. I always had been, since the day I stepped out of basic training. I was more broad than he was, but he carried me like I weighed nothing, and he didn't stop until we were at the edge of the front yard, and he dropped me on the ground like a sack of potatoes.

"What the actual fuck," I started, trying to stand, but he was on me in seconds, his hand around the front of my throat.

I reacted instantly, without thinking. My eyes lowered, my head tilting to the side as his claws pricked my skin.

His warm breath ghosted over my cheeks, and I felt a white-hot surge of want as he nosed along my jaw. It was Beta and Omega fighting inside me, and I wanted to scream. It was too fucking much.

"Please," I managed, and his grip loosened. The moment it did, though, another surge of pain wracked my middle, and I curled my arms around myself. "I don't…I need…"

I didn't know what I needed. I needed Danyal, maybe, or some sort of antidote. I felt flushed, like a fever rising, and I turned my gaze to Zane who was staring at me with his nostrils rapidly flaring.

There was a blush over his cheeks—and I knew this scent well. I'd seen the beginnings of a rut more than once with mated Alphas in the service.

Which meant…

"Jesus, no," I whispered. No. No. No fucking way was I going into heat.

Zane tried to nose his way down my body, and the cramps only got worse. I managed to push him back and stumble to my feet, but he was on me in seconds. I felt panic rising up, and just when I expected him to pin me to a tree, he let go.

When I looked over my shoulder at him, he was crouched low, his eyes looking at me with something like wonder and maybe a little fear. He understood—however much he was capable of understanding.

I held out a shaking hand, and he crept forward until the tips of his claws touched me. "I need to get in the house, Zane. Please come with."

I wasn't sure if he got all that, but I turned on my heel and began shuffling steps toward the porch. I was far slower than I had been as a wolf, but the very idea of shifting then made me feel like I was going to lose what little food I'd managed to consume the day before. I heard Zane a few seconds later, and as much as I wanted to be grateful he was trying to help, it was hard to deal with the thick, heavy scent of his approaching rut.

I was almost doubled over in pain by the time I got to the steps, and I stumbled in through the front door, leaving my clothes out on the porch. My legs supported me just long enough to reach the sofa, and I collapsed on the cushions, breathing in a sigh of relief. They were cool against my feverish skin, but I knew it wasn't going to last. The pain was getting worse, and there was an itch somewhere deep inside me that I knew wasn't going away.

Not without a knot.

I should have been panicking, and I might have been if I had enough space in my head to do it. But the scent of Zane so close—of Alpha, and want, and need—was overwhelming all of me. I groaned, dragging my hands over my face, and I found myself writhing against the soft cloth.

My cock was achingly hard, leaking all over my stomach, and I could feel another gush of slick dribbling between my thighs.

I turned my head when I heard a faint whine, and I saw Zane standing in the doorway with his cock thick between his legs, hard enough the head was pushing out of his foreskin. He was staring at me with starvation in his eyes, his lips parted on a pant.

It took me a moment to realize that his fangs were gone, and his claws had been drawn back. Was it because he wanted to knot me without hurting me? Or was he healing.

I opened my mouth to ask, but all that came out was a strangled moan as another wave of pain gripped me. In my haze, I knew what I needed. I hadn't exactly paid a lot of attention in biology when it came to Alpha and Omega mating. It wasn't something I thought I'd ever need. But I knew enough.

I knew it recently, when Misha was gripped by his heat and Kor was the only thing that could drag him out of the madness.

"Please," I whispered.

The moment the word escaped my lips, he was on me. His hands curled around my body, shoving me to the side as he fit himself against the cushions behind me. As his body slid along mine, the pain began to ebb, and the more he nosed at my skin, the more I could think.

"I hate this," I whispered. And it was true. I hated it, because this wasn't the way I wanted him. If I was ever allowed to have Zane, I wanted him enthusiastic and desperate for me on his own, not because his rut told him an Omega was in heat.

He let out another quiet whine, and then I felt a rough tongue laving at the join between my neck and shoulder. A place a Wolf would bite me if we wanted to mate. A place for an Alpha to sink his teeth in, in that peak of passion as his knot would catch and our bond would solidify.

And none of that was for me, because the blood running through my veins that marked me as an Omega wasn't real.

My temperature rose another degree, and I began to sweat as my dick began to ache. I could survive the heat without his knot, but it would be days of torture. Days of being desperate and unsatisfied. Days of forcing Zane to ignore what he wanted to do most.

His hand moved toward my erection, and I grabbed him by the wrist, pushing him back up toward my chest. "Not like this," I whispered. "Not when you can't tell me if this is what you want."

He made a strangled noise, then blunt teeth grazed my earlobe before he pulled away. His tongue worked in his mouth, and then a single word danced from his lips. "Orion."

I froze, trying to turn fully in his arms, but he locked his own around me and held me tight.

"Orion," he said again.

Fuck. Fuck . I sobbed quietly, pressing my hands over his, and I held tight. "I can't let you do this."

I heard him struggling again, like every word was a new mountain to climb, but he managed it. "Please. Orion."

My walls were already fragile, and while I realized then I would hate myself when it was all over, I was too weak. I was ready to crack.